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posted by martyb on Friday March 06 2020, @09:40PM   Printer-friendly

Proposed US law is "Trojan horse" to stop online encryption, critics say:

Two Republicans and two Democrats in the US Senate have proposed a law that aims to combat sexual exploitation of children online, but critics of the bill call it a "Trojan horse" that could harm Americans' security by reducing access to encryption. The EARN IT (Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies) Act "would create incentives for companies to 'earn' liability protection for violations of laws related to online child sexual abuse material," an announcement by the bill's supporters said today.

Under current law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provides website operators broad legal immunity for hosting third-party content. A 2018 law known as FOSTA-SESTA chipped away at that immunity for content related to prostitution and sex trafficking, and the EARN IT Act would further weaken immunity for website operators who fail to take certain to-be-determined measures to find and remove child sexual-abuse material.

In a related development today, US Attorney General William Barr gave a speech calling for an analysis of how Section 230 affects "incentives for platforms to address [child sexual exploitation] crimes and the availability of civil remedies to the victims."

[...] Stewart Baker, who was formerly assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security and general counsel at the National Security Agency, wrote in a blog post that "there is nothing radical" about the bill. "The risk of liability isn't likely to kill encryption or end Internet security," Baker wrote. But Baker acknowledged that the bill will likely make the decision to offer encryption a more difficult one for tech companies

Related:
U.S. Congress Passes SESTA/FOSTA Law
DoJ Lets Cops Know SESTA/FOSTA Is For Shutting Down Websites, Not Busting Sex Traffickers
Crypto Wars: US AG William Barr and UK Home Secretary Priti Patel Shake Fists at Facebook
Senate Judiciary Committee Interrogates Apple, Facebook about Crypto


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  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday March 08 2020, @04:23AM (8 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Sunday March 08 2020, @04:23AM (#968090) Journal

    Non-responsive... You haven't proven it to be any worse. You're just hand waving

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 08 2020, @01:01PM (7 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 08 2020, @01:01PM (#968159) Journal

    You haven't proven it to be any worse.

    "Proven"? Let's review an incomplete list of problems with the approach.

    1. Disconnects the appointees from the would-be electorate since they aren't elected. Provides incentives to grab and run since there's no built in system like elections for rewarding voter-approved actions. And since they're in control of making the laws that determine illegality of acts like bribery and such, I think this would rapidly devolve to the lowest common denominator.
    2. Doesn't do anything about unappointed bureaucrats who would accumulate power even more so than present. After all, who will know anything about the government, particularly secretly funded programs and court systems?
    3. Who controls selection? This becomes an attack point for corruption of the system, assuming the appointments retain any relevance.

    There seems to be this broken theory that if we grab people off the street that somehow we'll get a better outcome. That somehow they're better, more moral, more intelligent, etc than the people we deliberately pick to put in office. Prove that first. My take is that the only real difference is that the politicians have power and the people off the street do not.

    • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday March 08 2020, @06:36PM (6 children)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Sunday March 08 2020, @06:36PM (#968245) Journal

      It's not broken. Like everything else it merely succumbs to *might makes right*. You still have haven't shown how it can be any worse than what is happening right now, in practice, not theory

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:46AM (5 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:46AM (#968895) Journal

        Like everything else it merely succumbs to *might makes right*.

        Not even wrong. It's not about the mighty deciding what's right. It's creating a system without even rudimentary controls on bad behavior.

        • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:57AM (4 children)

          by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:57AM (#968900) Journal

          You're just scared of losing privilege

          --
          La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 10 2020, @01:17PM (3 children)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 10 2020, @01:17PM (#969023) Journal
            What privilege?
            • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday March 10 2020, @02:56PM (2 children)

              by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday March 10 2020, @02:56PM (#969073) Journal

              Ah yes, just like the fish, 'what water'?

              --
              La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 10 2020, @08:22PM (1 child)

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 10 2020, @08:22PM (#969267) Journal
                No argument again, I see
                • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday March 10 2020, @09:27PM

                  by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday March 10 2020, @09:27PM (#969302) Journal

                  You offer nothing to argue... You just express fantasy

                  --
                  La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..